Flexible low-grade energy utilization devices based on high-performance thermoelectric polyaniline/tellurium nanorod hybrid films

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (9) ◽  
pp. 3554-3559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Wang ◽  
S. M. Zhang ◽  
Y. Deng

Solution based polymer thermoelectric generation technologies provide a low-cost and eco-friendly means of direct energy conversion from low-grade heat to electricity.

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (25) ◽  
pp. 1900304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Wu ◽  
Yang Guo ◽  
Chengyi Hou ◽  
Qinghong Zhang ◽  
Yaogang Li ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao-Yang Zhang ◽  
Tao LI

Solar energy and ambient heat are two inexhaustible energy sources for addressing the global challenge of energy and sustainability. Solar thermal battery based on molecular switches that can store solar energy and release it as heat has recently attracted great interest, but its development is severely limited by both low energy density and short storage stability. On the other hand, the efficient recovery and upgrading of low-grade heat, especially that of the ambient heat, has been a great challenge. Here we report that solar energy and ambient heat can be simultaneously harvested and stored, which is enabled by room-temperature photochemical crystal-to-liquid transitions of small-molecule photoswitches. The two forms of energy are released together to produce high-temperature heat during the reverse photochemical phase change. This strategy, combined with molecular design, provides high energy density of 320-370 J/g and long-term storage stability (half-life of about 3 months). On this basis, we fabricate high-performance, flexible film devices of solar thermal battery, which can be readily recharged at room temperature with good cycling ability, show fast rate of heat release, and produce high-temperature heat that is >20<sup> o</sup>C higher than the ambient temperature. Our work opens up a new avenue to harvest ambient heat, and demonstrate a feasible strategy to develop high-performance solar thermal battery.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao-Yang Zhang ◽  
Tao LI

Solar energy and ambient heat are two inexhaustible energy sources for addressing the global challenge of energy and sustainability. Solar thermal battery based on molecular switches that can store solar energy and release it as heat has recently attracted great interest, but its development is severely limited by both low energy density and short storage stability. On the other hand, the efficient recovery and upgrading of low-grade heat, especially that of the ambient heat, has been a great challenge. Here we report that solar energy and ambient heat can be simultaneously harvested and stored, which is enabled by room-temperature photochemical crystal-to-liquid transitions of small-molecule photoswitches. The two forms of energy are released together to produce high-temperature heat during the reverse photochemical phase change. This strategy, combined with molecular design, provides high energy density of 320-370 J/g and long-term storage stability (half-life of about 3 months). On this basis, we fabricate high-performance, flexible film devices of solar thermal battery, which can be readily recharged at room temperature with good cycling ability, show fast rate of heat release, and produce high-temperature heat that is >20<sup> o</sup>C higher than the ambient temperature. Our work opens up a new avenue to harvest ambient heat, and demonstrate a feasible strategy to develop high-performance solar thermal battery.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joana P. Neto ◽  
Adriana Costa ◽  
Joana Vaz Pinto ◽  
André Marques–Smith ◽  
Júlio Costa ◽  
...  

AbstractThis work explored hybrid films of silver nanowires (AgNWs) with indium-doped zinc oxide (IZO) for developing high-performance and low-cost electrocorticography (ECoG) electrodes.The hybrid films achieved a sheet resistance of 6 Ω/sq while maintaining a transparency of ≈60% at 550 nm. Electrodes with 500 μm diameter were fabricated with these films and reached an impedance of 20 kΩ at 1 kHz and a charge storage capacity of 3.2 mC/cm2, a 2× and 320× improvement over IZO electrodes, respectively. Characterization of light-induced artifacts was performed showing that small light intensities (<14 mW/mm2) elicit electrical potential variation in the magnitude order of baseline noise. The validation of electrodes in vivo was achieved by recording electrical neural activity from the surface of rat cortex under anaesthesia. Moreover, the presence of the films did not cause obstruction of light during fluorescence microscopy.The presented film and electrode characterization studies highlighted the capabilities of this hybrid structure to fabricate transparent and flexible electrodes that are able to combine the superior temporal resolution of extracellular electrophysiology with the spatial resolution offered by optical imaging.


1980 ◽  
Vol 102 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Culham ◽  
P. Niessen

Solar selective surfaces have been produced on austenitic and ferritic stainless steels using an acidic chromate bath at 75°C. These surfaces have been shown to have high humidity resistance and good thermal stability. The conversion coatings can be applied uniformly over large surfaces, even surfaces of nonplanar topography. Complete sets of plating parameters for different grades of stainless steels are presented which may be used for the implementation of this process for the production of low grade heat collecting systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pingjun Ying ◽  
Ran He ◽  
Jun Mao ◽  
Qihao Zhang ◽  
Heiko Reith ◽  
...  

AbstractThermoelectric technology converts heat into electricity directly and is a promising source of clean electricity. Commercial thermoelectric modules have relied on Bi2Te3-based compounds because of their unparalleled thermoelectric properties at temperatures associated with low-grade heat (<550 K). However, the scarcity of elemental Te greatly limits the applicability of such modules. Here we report the performance of thermoelectric modules assembled from Bi2Te3-substitute compounds, including p-type MgAgSb and n-type Mg3(Sb,Bi)2, by using a simple, versatile, and thus scalable processing routine. For a temperature difference of ~250 K, whereas a single-stage module displayed a conversion efficiency of ~6.5%, a module using segmented n-type legs displayed a record efficiency of ~7.0% that is comparable to the state-of-the-art Bi2Te3-based thermoelectric modules. Our work demonstrates the feasibility and scalability of high-performance thermoelectric modules based on sustainable elements for recovering low-grade heat.


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